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Published: October 16th 2011
BY RJP please excuse slang (Linz will probably edit!)
14/9/11 cont : Last night on Caye Ambergris, I (Rich) went to find alligators in the lagoon on bike but after 20mins I could only see things moving under the surface and the mosies found me so I got the hell on! Found the honeymooners swank hotel (Victoria House) and found them by the rather nice pool on in idyllic setting, bit jealous, but would recommend to others. After walking around town with Linz had a nice meal at The Blue Water Grill, lush food and first bottle of Wine for 3.5 weeks, I cracked, loved it. Onto a bar next door called BC’s- cheap beer with locals. Headed back to Pedro’s bar for some mad partying with the residents as one of the young doctors Rebecca was leaving, it was shut. Just about to go to bed when Kath (bar maid) offered a lift on her golf buggy to Fido’s bar to find them all. We got as far as the town square where they were all drinking rum and coke with the locals and driving about in Walter’s golf buggy. After about an hour we all headed home after
learning from Walter that in Belize when someone yawns you say “out Gypsy” then the yawner replies “goa way Casper”? (Walter is the hostel / hotel general maintenance dude he’s the one with long 19 year old dreads down passed his ass in photos and is a very, very funny man, he makes the place.
15911: Check out and golf buggy to ferry, Caye Caulker, another amazing island. That got split in two by a hurricane maybe 10 years ago. Much Cheaper, everyone friendly and half the pace of S Pedro, which means a crawl. Had a wander, ended up at the Split Bar, cool as especially as it was happy hour! Few beers sat in the water picnic tables and watched the sunset. Then onto Bambooze for dinner had really good ribs, they don’t do good beef in Belize pork all the way ! We had 4 Crabs fighting over my scraps under the table which is good dinner entertainment. After we met Ashley and Mary (2 Irish girls) and went to I & I roof top reggae bar to end the night. Belikin is the local brewed was owned by an Englishmen who managed to monopolize the
country and kick out all other beers and Pepsi! Its good beer but only comes in 287mm bottles for about $4 ($3.25 = £1).
16911: Could not go on our morning snorkel due to a big squall coming in. it rained so hard I had to put the bathmat in front of threshold to stop the driving rain getting blown in. The trouble with paradise beachfront accommodation in the rainy season. Went snorkelling with big Rasta dude called Sean! Snorkel was really good especially when he put a fish he had in his pocket into a disused conch shell he found and then taped until two Moray eels came out from there hiding place in the reef about 8mtrs below us and ripped the fish from the shell. It weird to see them fully out in the water, they return back to the hole they came from until another fish is presented. He warned us that once the fish had gone they might go for us instead! And yes one of them decided to go for me. I did the trigger fish defence technique (roll onto your back and kick your flippers at said animal) and off the distraught
eel went! The usual amazing array of colourful fish and coral. Site 2 of 3 was good as we jumped in there was about 6 80cm wide rays and 7no. 6ft to 7ft nurse sharks swimming around the boat. Then more turned up when he started feeding them! They were literally crashing into me the water was only 6ft deep, brilliant. Sean then started try to roll the sharks to stun them and flip the rays. He had some success with the rays but the sharks said no! 3rd site was shallow and full of aquarium type fish.
Back for beers at the split bar. Then a meal at Rosie’s, where they have a big BBQ out front and you pick your fresh fish or lobster and they serve it up, lobster was £10 and massive. Then back to bambooze for the world famous Belizean chicken drop? See photo’s, basically you buy a raffle ticket that matches a number on the 100 square board and if the chicken shits on the number you win the pot! F ing hilarious, they hold the poor chicken upside down by the wings and violently shake until it’s squawking like a treat then blow
on its bum hole and chuck it in the square. It walks about a bit with people screaming “shit chicken shit” when near their number, good fun.
17/9/11 : Fast ferry to Belize City, via an island called Chapel Caye which was basically 2 full links island golf courses and a hotel and that’s it! (Roddy and JC you would love it) Belize City only has 70,800 people and is pretty hectic we went to straight to bus station were they crammed us on an ex USA style school bus (but green) and headed west to San Ignacio, up high in the jungle hills near the Guatemalan border. Journey was funny I was at the back there was some ozzies sat on the floor behind me, because bus was so full. The bus was rammed they fill all the seats in the station then go out in to road and let on more!!! Just out of town the bus kept picking people and stuff up. My favourite was a spare drive shaft which they shoved under the legs of the ozzy girl at which point she shouts “is this some kind of joke you’ve got to be kidding, I
loved it. We arrived 2 hrs. later after crossing the whole width of Belize mainland. (Size of wales but with 307K pop.)
Found a little family run b + b in town and went to a temple nearby (see photos) then back in town for food. B&B has two resident lizards that can run on water and a couple of humming birds knocking about!
18/9/11: Went on a trip to Actun Tunichil Muknal caves about 20k away into mountain jungle. Hiked for 5k through jungle with 3 river crossings, then swam into the mouth of a cave with helmet lights on. We continued for 400m up stream in the best caves I’ve ever seen water level changed from rushing ankle deep to deep swims, squeezes the lot. Then we ascended up onto a Plato and headed into a cavern where lie the 1000 year old untouched sacrificial Mayan remains, mostly pots and animals but as you went further into the cave and thus time, the sacrifices became more serious paralleling the Mayans believed strife with disease (or maybe drought)? And right at the back of the cave in a little cave was a sacrificed child believed to be bound
so heshe was kept kneeling during decomposition guarding a woman’s skeleton believed to have had her spine smashed mid-way up with a flint hatchet and left to die crippled in the dark, see photos. Really good trip, a must if you’re ever this way.
Forgot to mention this is the town where they fed the Queen the royal rat at a fancy hotel up the road.
19/9/11: 10am, At Guatemalan border got ripped off by the official immigration officer, only $2.5 each but still no need. The first shuttle bus guy offered to take us to Flores for £40 each! We ended up getting the locals shuttle (similar to a collectivo) for £3.5 each. 2.5 hrs. later after the most packed bus journey so far, there was 12 seats and 20 people in the bus (little Toyota van) doing about 70mph on roppey roads, nice.
We get to a big traffic jam just outside of Santa Elena about 1km from our destination. It turns out the problem is a political road block, consisting of a felled tree and a load of big rocks, plus a lot of people. We had to walk 500m to the other end of the
road block to get a tuk tuk the rest of the way. Just before we got into the tuk tuk a bloke on a Honda 90 ish motorbike tried to ride over the second blockade. Four people grabbed the bike as he was nearly over and lifted the back wheel up. The rider then started shouting and revving the engine in gear! More people then got involved and picked him and his bike up and through them back the other side of the blockade.
Our little tuk took us to our hotel overlooking the logo de Petén Izta (lake), beautiful views and dock to swim off. Flores is a little Spanish looking town on an island hill, good little bars and restaurants.
20/9/11:picked up outside hotel at 4.30am (still dark), 2hrs later we were at Tikal another ancient Mayan settlement in the middle of the jungle. Apparently used in the flyover scene in Starwars, pretty amazing place 5 massive temples set out in the same positions as the plough constellation (see photos). Amazing scenes and loads of wild life weird frogs, caterpillars, howler monkeys, spider monkeys, also saw a couple toucans and another tarantula. Afternoon swim in the lake
and a nice Italian dinner.
21/9/11: Chill out day in Flores, lie in, lazy breaky, swam across lake, diving off jetty etc. 8pm night bus to Guatemala City.
22/9/11: 6am wake as we enter Guat city, small hectic roads loads of pimped up chicken buses, rammed full of people going to work , people standing in aisles and even hanging out the door or on the rear ladders to roof rack, mad town. We got connection shuttle to Antigua (2hrs) with views of Volcanoes. Antigua is beautiful like a little Spanish town but all single story apart from the many churches, some still destroyed from old earthquakes. Kind of like Guatemalan version of Bath but with more culture and earthquake damage. We like the feel of the place, loads of swanky bars, restaurants, coffee shops, live music etc. The town is surrounded by hills and 3 big Volcanoes, one “fuego” or fire still smoking away to the south west.
23/9/11:6am picked up outside hostel, 1.5hrs into the hills to active Volcano Pacaya 2400m high ish. The shuttle bus driver was armed with a pistol, interesting. Start walk in small village near a geothermal energy station and head
up through semi jungle. Following behind our group was 10 lads on scrawny pony’s saying “taxi taxi”. Got to as near the crater as we were allowed and semi cooked some marshmallows in the hot spots (see photos).
Back in Antigua found the market which is mental 2ft wide paths lead through a crazy amount of every kind of stall one can imagine. Linz bought some really nice pineapple then dropped it straight on the floor, ha.
Booked a weeks ( 20hrs) Spanish lessons living with the family next door to the school you just happened to be doing our laundry!
Dinned in a nice restaurant, bed.
24/9/11 to 26/9/11 9am till 1pm one on one Spanish, then chilling, exploring, enjoying, Antigua,
27/9/11:Took a day off to go mountain biking in the hills, Victor our guide took us out through a village that apparently has the best shoe makers in the world? You can show them a photo of designer boots and they can make them even better than the real thing?
Climbed into the hills mixed terrain single track towns and crop fields, we stopped at a church/temple of a Guat saint called “Maximon” pronounced ma
shi mon. This saint? Was a priest who had his arms cut off by the Spanish for helping and healing undesirables. Now the locals who are proper catholic go to this temple and pay the shamen to bless them and let them perform rituals for luck, weath, heath you name it! These rituals can involve sacrificing chickens and smoking (see Photos), I’ve never seen anything like it. Inside the temple you take a bottle of booze or a cigarette to the plastic life size model of the saint, spit booze or blow smoke on him the shamen then does the same back to you! Then you drink or smoke half of what you brought and leave on the on the neon/LED lighted alter. Then chuck a load of pine needles on the floor, a candle is lit and placed on one of the many tables in the church, candles are coloured according to requirement I.e., red candle love, blue weath etc.
On the way home the rainy season kicked in big time. Trails turned to rivers, I got a puncture. Back down in the towns, the streets turned to rivers, I got a blowout luckily near a bike shop!
Fished
the ride in walls of water and traffic never seen rain like it when we got home we could not cross the street because there was 6 inches of water running down it! 4hrs latter thought all dry again, mental To the market to buy a poncho and dinner with the family, frijoles every meal.
28/9/11 and 29/9/11 back to Spanish school and activities like walks cooking class and a half hour salsa lesson which I hated! Me and three girls a full wall mirror and a little prancing Guat man, nice. I felt like an idiot and could see the live proof of it.
30/9/11: 5am tourist shuttle bus to Quetzaltenango or (XELA pronounced shella), winding climb out of Antigua brilliant views of clear dawn volcanoes. Got pulled over by the machine gun armed police, they did not seem happy with our drivers documents and then asked to see the buses four other occupants hands? After a detailed inspection of our nails we then had our fingers sniffed, he’s stuck them right up his nostril. (not stumpy though). After a 1 hr. random change of buses in the middle of nowhere, nice view though. And then a further
swap to a battered jap 4 x 4 we got to the friendly pug hostel in Xela. Nice people weird/ shit hostel, had one toilet and shower and a PlayStation plus a band permanently living there!
Town looked awful In the day light compared to Antigua. However at night threw up some gems, the centre was lit well and looked nice and we had the best Indian curry I may possibly have ever had. Followed by Guat hot chocolate in Luna bar/museum, very cool Bar full of old things, menus were old LP covers etc.
Then the next bar under that one called under the moon had jugs of wine and cheese, genius.
1/10/11: up at 4am walk 20mins to meet quezaltrekkers for trip up Volcano Tajumulco the highest point in central America 4220m. Boasting views of 17 volcanoes in Guat, the pacific and Mexico. See photos. Summarized the journey consisted of: a ride in the back of a pickup to bus station, chicken bus to san Marcos, breakfast of pancakes and fruit, 2nd chicken bus to volcano, 6k hike 1 vertical mile climbed, into a cloud which pissed down on us, tents up, lunch of peanut butter on
bread, nachos and dips. I tried to start a fire but did not do to well with soaking wood, no flammable liquid to hand. Dinner of pesto pasta, card games till 9pm then sleep.
2/10/11 Up at 3:30am pack sleeping bags and mats only, climb the last 200m (the crater). Summit at 0415hrs ish, still dark, freezing cold and short of breath and headache due to altitude. Found an east facing spot to await sunrise in our sleeping bags, Many stars some shooting. Sunrise reveals we are in-between two layers of cloud not the views we were promised but still bloody amazing. 6am back down around crater edge for porridge, 8am pack up camp, Sun came out so we climbed the second smaller crater, views again amazing. 9am start descent, 11:30am finish decent , meal in local restaurant. 12:30pm chicken buses home to Xela. Except we had to walk back from bus station with packs about 1 mile. 4pm unpack and dry stuff out. Brilliant trip highly recommend it.
6pm after wondering around town nothing looks as good as the curry so we ate there again, again amazing plus cheapish bottle of wine.
3/10/11: Lie in till 10am;
big breakfast, pack and walk back to bus station, chicken bus to San Pedro on Lake Atitlan (3 hrs), awful roads, switchbacks and pissing down again! Check into Zoolas and eat lots, plus beers with the two lads we met on the bus Tim and Ian, good laugh.
4/10/11: 11am Pony trek to tiny farm that grows everything! While cantering on the way back my saddle strap snapped and the whole lot started to slide right taking me with it, at about 45 degrees I decided to get off….. This was too late I hit the ground hard and fast, wacked both elbows and right knee. Salvador fixed saddle and we carried on, Lindsey could not stop laughing, I was embarrassed.
3pm I decide were are chancing the weather and hire a double kayak for the 45min paddle to san Marcos on the lake. Here there is a 15m water jump, to my amazement Linz decided to do it and did! See photos, hilarious. 5pm it’s raining for the paddle back, Linz gets the poncho I get my boardies, I paddle hard to stay warm.
Back at hostel we pack and party till 1am, good bunch of people, good
hostel, good food, good bar and pool, sorted.
5/10/11: Up at 5:15am for first ferry to Santiago de Atitlan, 6:30am first chicken bus to Escuintla, horrible hectic place, never stay there. 9:30am second chicken bus to Chiquimulilla, got a sandwich, random people as always seemed to appear out of the chaos to throw you bags on the right chicken bus just in time. Got ripped off by a woman selling weird chickeny, doughy, cakey things while getting the bus refuelled, cow charged me £1.50 when the going rate was 75p! 3rd chicken bus to the El Savadorian boarder the first ten mile of which was at 5mph on the worst road so are with Juggenoughts coming the opposite way, many head on moments and a dodgy narrow bridge.
2pm arrive at boarder; get through without any trouble, unusual? Pedal tuk tuk across 1km no man’s land to El Salvador. 2:45pm Fourth chicken bus to Sonsonate, we missed the last bus to la Libertad at 3:30 so got the 5th bus of the day to los Cabanos, 5pm checked in to a small place by the Pacific Cabanos supposed to be best snorkelling and diving in El Salv but rainy
season run off had made the water murky brown!
We rushed to get to the point to see the sunset without repellent, error. Nice sunset, not nice sand fly’s and mosquito attack, strange thing was most bites were through our clothes! Got back and our restaurant was shut, dinner in a restaurant/ someone’s front room open to the street during the second down pour of the day, After dinner ran home in rain….sleepy time.
6/10/10, Happy birthday Lucky legs 33 years old and going strong! Lazy breakfast and 11am bus to Sonsonate, got dropped off at junction for the east heading coast road, thought buses were hourly but found out from Mark a nice (from USA) man who picked us up. that there is one bus at 4pm, direct. 2nd chicken bus of the day from marks village Mizata to La Perla, 3rd chicken bus to El zonte our destination, the surf is up, massive!
Checked into esencia native, hire a board a get surfing, I thought it was about head high weak and spilly, but it turned out about 6ft and powerful right hand point break on boulders! I stayed in till sunset, error as this meant I
was the last in and could not see where to get out because of black cliffs and blacksand beach. As luck would have it I landed safely on the only 10ft wide bit of non-boulder beach. Hostel has best food in town, nice pizza, got invited to a birthday drink with Dave & Suez. It turned into a bit of a party at there’s hostel with the locals too, turned out well.
7/10/11: Lazy breaky, then bus to el tunco, got 3 massive lefts on my own in the water, on the wall graffiti in massive letters LOCALS ONLY but the two I saw were sound. Few beers and bus back, they let u take your board on the chicken buses, a nice old lady held onto mine in the aisle today because the bus was so full we were both standing. Linz got chatted up by a 7yr lad who was holding her hand on the roof hand rails, quite amusing. Steak dinner, blog update draft, Linz is asleep its 23:45 and a bus load of USA has filled the hostel- party or bed?????
8/10/11: Saturday, up early swell looks a bit smaller in the bay but
there is a surf competition on dammit! Linz hung out with a teacher couple by the pool all day and I got the chicken bus to El sunzal, the surf….was EPIC. Perfect doubleover head right point break, wipe outs were fine due to the deep channel. It’s the biggest mellow wave I’ve ever surfed, brilliant day. Back home on the chicken bus, meal with the teachers. Linz retired early and I socialised with the USA & Canadians, told them the finger story by the end only the lads were still there the 4 girls had left, ha. Nothing wrong with a bit of gore.
9/10/11:Alex (hostal owner and local surf guru) said I should surf the left today! It looked closed out but me and Cameron (USA dude from previous night drinks) got out through ridiculous shore dump to find a mostly closed out fast left. I got a solid fast ride into the shore dump close out barrel and had to punch out through the back of the wave to avoid annihilation. After comp finished had nice surf on the point, had the point to myself from time to time, lovely, getting better at rights. It’s now 8:00pm just
finished dinner and sat in a hammock polishing up this dodgy blog, I can smell my rum, banana, cinnamon and ice cream dessert. Here it is see ya, yum yum.
10/10/11: Linz writing now! And no, I’m not editing Rich’s blog it would take me ages! Rich got up at 6am to go surfing at km59 ( a sort of secret spot) with his new friend Nathan who is doing voluntary work spreading the word about being a Jehovah’s witness, I think it might be a blag just to stay in the country and doss about! Anyway, apparently the surf was rubbish so they didn’t bother. El Zonte was dead so after breakfast we got the bus to El Tunco (10 min bus ride) to book our bus to Managua, Nicaragua. As we were walking to the hostel where we could buy our tickets we bumped into Zen the Aussie sat drinking a beer at a small outside eatery on the corner (more like a dilapidated shack!). We had a chat and he was up for heading east along the coast to some more surf breaks in El Sal. He had found out that we could get a shuttle
together fairly cheaply so we sat down and after a few beers decided to go for that option and spend a couple of days there. That evening when we got back to Esencia Nativa (where we were staying in El Zonte) the usually small river was absolutely massive, the small bar and shop were water logged and the river had even transported a massive tree outside our hostel! That night it really hammered it down with rain non-stop.
11/10/11
Woke up early to get the shuttle, it was still raining. The road was also like a river now but the van managed to pick us up. Got driven to Las Flores (the beach where the surf is) it took about 4 hours. Rich looked at the accommodation on the beach, it was pretty dingy and full of bugs and was $20 a night! Rich would probably have dealt with it, I really wasn’t keen. Most of the accommodation in El Sal. is really quite shabby and sometimes not even very clean. Zen decided to stay there but we got the shuttle to take us to La Tortuga Verde (4km east) because it sounded pretty good in the lonely planet.
When we got there it was really dead (no other’s staying there) but the room was clean and nice with an ensuite for the same price. There are some crazy rooms that don’t have walls but fly wire sheets around. Not sure about that? In the high season this place must get really busy as it’s pretty big with chill out areas with hammocks everywhere, a pool and a restaurant (food not great) but we’re out in the sticks and don’t have any choice. They also have a resident pelican who can’t fly so they feed him. Spent the afternoon trying to make an internet dongle work and failed and just had a snooze cos it was still raining (it is definitely a tropical storm as it’s blowing a hoolie now!). The hostel backs right onto the beach (black sand) but the sea was really rough so we didn’t go in. Whilst sat down waiting for tea Rich thought I had a bug on my back but when he flicked it off realised it was bat shit! I then found some on him! Is that lucky? Saw a massive toad hopping around and made friends with a dog who wanted
our food. Not sure if it was stray or not as it actually looked healthy. Most strays are skeletal and constantly scratch. The females all have nipples hanging down really low. I feel sorry for them but there’s nought I can do! Just found the remains of a week old sandwich in my bag, yuck! I was wondering what the foul smell was. Fingers crossed this storm goes tomorrow as not a lot to do here.
Sorry it took so long to publish this blog, but the internet connections are not great here and the photo´s take ages to upload.
Linz x
Ok this crappy internet cafe won´t let me download the photos in bulk so i´ll try one by one and see how it goes!
Ok, took me ages and had to leave loads out, also ran out of time to put in right order as they´re closing the cafe!
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